Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department hosts drug drop-off

ZANESVILLE, OH- It is National Prescription Drug Take Back Day and to participate the Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department has partnered with other businesses to host a prescription drug drop-off. 

Their aim is to provide a convenient and safe way to dispose of prescription drugs while also educating the public on the dangers of these drugs making it into the streets. 
 
“One of the things we do here that is different than most is we take sharps, we take needles out of people’s homes, those could be used on the street for illicit drug use, you know we’re looking for especially controlled substances like OxyContin, Oxycodone, Fentanyl, those kinds of things, but we take it all, we don’t want people to have to stand at their medicine cabinets and think ‘what do I want to bring?’, you know just bring it,” says Steve Carrel, retired CEO of Muskingum Behavioral Health.

The process of dropping off your medication rarely takes longer than 15 seconds. They normally do these drives twice a year, in the spring they got around 104 pounds in pills alone out of people’s homes.

“We do this a couple times a year, usually October-ish and usually April May-ish, but you know there are places in Muskingum County to drop off meds in between there, the Muskingum County Sheriff Department has a safe in their lobby, and all you gotta do is stop there, go in, put it in the safe, it’s a one way safe, nobody can reach in to get it and they will take it out and dispose of it for you,” says Carrel. 
 
For more information about where and when you can drop off any medications you may have, please contact the Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department.